The Battle of Camden is a major victory for the British in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence).
On August 16, 1780, British forces under Lieutenant General Charles, Lord Cornwallis rout the American forces of Major General Horatio Gates about ten kilometers (five miles) north of Camden, South Carolina, strengthening the British hold on the Carolinas following the capture of Charleston.
The rout is a humiliating defeat for Gates, the American general best known for commanding the Americans at the British defeat of Saratoga, whose army had possessed a large numerical superiority over the British force.
Following the battle, he will never hold a field command again.
His political connections, however, help him avoid inquiries and courts martial into the debacle.
